The World Wide Web (the “Web”) provides a dynamic way to present and distribute a vast amount of information. Anyone who is connected to the Internet and has a browser, such as Netscape Navigator Communicator™, commercially available from Netscape Communications Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., can access information on the Web. The Web provides users with many media options and is becoming ubiquitously available in an expanding variety of personal electronic devices, far beyond its initial limited availability to users via computer terminals. In addition, as display technologies continue to improve, the Web may ultimately replace traditional paper-based media altogether.
Paper-based media generally have an associated time stamp, and permit an easy determination of the information that was available at a given time. For example, a newspaper article can be cited as an authoritative reference, provided that the particular date of the newspaper publication is specified. Due to the dynamic nature of Web content, however, a Web document is generally not a reliable reference source. Currently, Web content cannot reliably be expected to be available in the same form and addressed by the same Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) at a future time. While some Web sites may provide access to some archived Web documents, the historical Web documents may not be accessed by users in a consistent and predictable manner, if at all.
The Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (“OCLC”), a nonprofit computer library service and research organization, provides a software tool, referred to as OCLC PURL (“Persistent Uniform Resource Locator”), for managing Internet addresses and aliases for general Internet resources. A Persistent Uniform Resource Locator provides flexible naming and name resolution services for Internet resources to ensure reliable, long-term access to Internet resources with minimal maintenance. Generally, OCLC PURL assists Internet users in locating Web resources. As previously indicated, the Internet is constantly expanding and changing. Once a Uniform Resource Locator changes, all previous references to that URL become invalid, thereby preventing users from accessing the Internet resource. The management of these changes often becomes burdensome.
While a URL points directly to the location of an Internet resource, a PURL points to an intermediate resolution service, which translates the PURL into the actual URL. Once a Web resource has been registered with the OCLC and assigned a PURL, the Web resource may be accessed by means of the PURL. A PURL assigns a persistent name to a resource even if the location of the resource changes. In this manner, PURLs referenced in Web documents and other resources can remain viable over time without having to update the references each time the Web resource is moved. The PURL “forwarding” address maintained by OCLC, however, must be kept up-to-date. In other words, each time the document is moved, OCLC must be notified of the new address for the document.